Mercury goes direct in motion Nov 26, 2:48 pm PST, 10:48 pm Greenwich, and speeds up for the next 10 weeks. This shows a quickening of the ability to coordinate, put things together, understand the whole and the parts, the process and the larger cycles. It is now stationary at 19 degrees of Scorpio, affecting that area in our lives for 3 months to come.

Mercury, or Hermes, "the Guide of Souls," is also known as the Divine Trickster, as well as all lesser models. What does Mercury going stationary direct at 19 Scorpio hold for us?

We are told the symbol is "A parrot listening and then talking.” Rudhyar says this is a degree of “dependence upon inner or outer environment for the substance of understanding,” “transmission of knowledge,” and “channel-ship.”

In "The Astrological Mandala" he states the keynote is "the capacity to transmit transcendental knowledge.” He notes that this symbolizes the ability to those who live “in a state of ardent and sustained faith” to become channels for higher knowledge and wisdom, where those with a quiet and attentive mind can tune into things beyond normal understanding.”

He says there is a possibility of “superhuman realizations,” but also the need for Divine Discrimination to balance “the overeagerness of faith.” As this is the fourth degree of the sequence, it represents a technique of Actional Faith in the Span of Appreciation. Birds symbolize spiritual forces, so this is a symbol of “the possibility of learning from Higher Intelligences,” channeling higher knowledge.

Of note is that this is the exact degree where Jupiter went stationary retrograde in early March 2006. That represented a threshold point in time where we began to tune into higher awareness via the house where 19 Scorpio is in our charts. (In my chart it fell in my 4th, and about a year later I bought a home.)

Stationary retrograde and direct points become “hot spots” set into motion by future transits. What Jupiter promised us back then can now be seen through a Mercury lens over the next few months, giving us insights into how Jupiter’s influence led us to an adventure, truth, or some form of grace since Spring 2006.

We can now use Mercury’s function of being “the Guide of Souls” to use the qualities of 19 Scorpio to weave together the higher and lower realizations we’ve come to these past 7 years. How we use opportunities to use those realizations to coordinate those into our lives over the next 4 months will become a crystallized part of our hologram between December 2013 and September 2014. At that time the Higher Realizations that we’ve coordinated into our lives will become key to expressing the unique message of our Dharma.

In any case, we should all start seeing, hearing, and understanding things that point the way to some Mercurial technique of how we have been and continue to be guided to our Sou. Given that it falls at 19 Scorpio, it shows us some way to find connectedness on inner and outer levels that can make us more sure in our focus, magnetism, and ability to open in faith to techniques of regeneration. Here we see how to turn old defeats into new victories, old debilities into new strengths, and old losses into the magnetic space that will attract future gains.

The symbol is oriented toward faith, action, and techniques of channeling higher awarenesses, and other expressions of the Fixed Water that Scorpio symbolizes. This follows the transfiguration and blessings of 18 Scorpio, and precedes the parting of the veil and entrance into the unknown of 20 Scorpio.

Marc Jones says 19 Scorpio is where we see “the raw substance of intelligence,” where “conscious existence can be shaped” according to what we desire. Here we can “rework reality” toward our ideal using imagination, selecting or rejecting any part of our makeup so we can better project an image that we ourselves create.

He says the keyword is CONVENTIONALITY, and when positive, this degree is "exceptional skill in bringing the whole tenor of transient circumstances to the service of a personal aspiration.” The implication is that through Mercury, we have opportunities to grow into a Soul expression through being sensitive to higher knowledge and wisdom, and using our intelligence to reshape our expression and thereby our reality.

We will also be re-tracing our late Scorpio and early Sagittarius lessons from now through December 14 (with residual echoes for the next 14 weeks.) Mercury going direct will re-activate many of the aspects it's made over the past few weeks. At various times over the past three weeks, it's made important conjunctions, noviles, semisquares, septiles, squares, and sesquisquares to the other planets.

It now begins a new set of aspects, initiated by a very close biseptile to Neptune and septile to Mars as Mars conjuncts Pluto. That Mercury goes stationary direct in the Scorpio zone of the Grand Irrationality will make the next few months extremely important, especially since Jupiter is in the Gemini zone, showing 4 points of the 7 pointed Star pattern is being lit up big time, and will be a major influence for the next 13 weeks!

This stationary direct points sets up major “forks in the road of destiny” for all of us wherever we have 19 Scorpio in our chart over the next few months and to a lesser degree beyond then. It will especially affect those with planets or sensitive points near 7-11 Capricorn, 29 Aquarius-3 Pisces, 20-24 Aries, 11-15 Gemini, 2-6 Leo, 24-28 Virgo, and 16-20 Scorpio.

This continues Mercury’s influence in stimulating the Grand Irrationality at its stationary direct point. It did the same thing last August when it went stationary direct at 2 Leo, also triggering the Grand Irrationality since then. This adds to what Mercury has already set into motion by moving the energies from early Leo to mid-Scorpio. To note, this is the last time this happens for a while, even though Mercury will go stationary retrograde at 19 Scorpio in mid-October 2013, giving us a review and echo of the 13 week period we’re about to begin.

For now I’ll add that the important “forks in the road of destiny” awaiting all of humanity individually and collectively will be set into motion each time the Moon moves through any of the 7 degree spans mentioned 3 paragraphs back. That makes for important events on Nov 28-29 (Lunar Eclipse alert!!) and Dec 2-3, 7, 10-11, 14, 17-18, 21-22, 25-26, and 30.

Since this stationary direct point is in play through late February 2013, the Moon will set things in motion Jan 3-4, 6-7, 10-11, 14, 18, 21-22, 26 (Full Moon alert!!), 30-31, and Feb 3, 7, 10-11, 14-15, 17-18, 22-23, and 27. Then we have to factor in the inner planet transits, showing that some periods will have a lot of “destiny producing activity.”

These periods show Venus moving through the Scorpio zone between Dec 3-8, and then a lull until the Sun moves through the Capricorn zone Dec 26-Jan 1, followed by Mercury moving through the Capricorn zone Jan 4-7 and Venus in the Capricorn zone between Jan 13-17. Mars is in the Aquarius-Pisces zone Jan 29 through Feb 3 followed by Mercury transiting that zone between Feb 4-6, the Sun in that zone Feb 15-20, and Venus in that zone Feb 23-27.

That makes the periods of Dec 3, 7, 26, 30, Jan 4, 7, 14, 30, 31, Feb 3, 23, and 27 times when major events related to this stationary direct energy could show us which way the winds of destiny are blowing. It’s easy to see how things will get pretty strange off and on for the next 3 months!

Over the next three weeks through December 14, while it’s still in its “shadow period” from 19 Scorpio to 5 Sagittarius (the set of degrees traversed three times during the forward, then retrograde, then forward movement), after the aspects listed above it will make a sesquisquare to Uranus, semisquare and then novile to Pluto. It then re-enters Sagittarius at 5:40 pm PST Dec 10 (1:40 am Greenwich Dec 11),makes a square to Neptune, and then a trine to Uranus.

After it leaves its “shadow span,” it opposes Jupiter, and makes a semisquare to Mars in mid-December around the time Venus squares Neptune and the very powerful Yod involving Saturn sextile Pluto both quincunx Jupiter in Gemini. That Yod, or “Finger of God,” will definitely squeeze many into a more specific focus!

Some will become skilled “Zen archers,” while others will show their skills in tests of marksmanship. This is a configuration involving multiple “expansion through sacrifice” energies, so sacrifice extraneous things, get focused, and let your arrow fly!

During this “shadow period” that lasts through December 14, we have relatively few major aspects made by the inner planets. The most important involves Venus conjunct Saturn, Mars conjunct Pluto, Venus sextile Pluto and sextile Mars through the end of the month, and in December we have only Sun opposition Jupiter during the Shadow phase of Mercury. The Shadow phase ends hours after Uranus goes stationary direct shortly after the New Moon at 22 Sagittarius on December 13, 0:42 am PST, 8:42 am Greenwich.

By late December 13 or early December 14, Mercury will move out of its shadow span and enter its next "unknown zones" where the themes of this retrograde will be played out in forward motion. So for the next three weeks, expect some very productive intersections of past and future, with a promise of very productive reorganized regenerations, as well as new responsibilities and ways of “doing our Destiny” when Venus conjuncts Saturn and Mars conjuncts Pluto, setting whole new cycle of these into motion. I described this in the above linked article, so if you’re in doubt check it out.

Also, given that Venus will transit Mercury’s retrograde degree span between December 6-20, Mercury has fulfilled its function as a “herald,” preparing the way for Venus to capture the value of this retrograde experience. We may get an “after the fact” appreciation for something we’ve already been through, and help us to see the value in a more well-rounded set of insights and understanding of recent events that always occurs after a retrograde period.

So at the end of this retrograde period, we find ourselves ready to fill a void with higher knowledge, awareness, and/or realizations, or will have to create a void to attract these. We definitely continue to be at a fork in the road of our lives, both individually and collectively, and the next 4 months will prove very strange, with lots of obsessive-compulsive irrational behaviors happening everywhere. The world is definitely getting crazier and weirder by the day, and this stationary direct point activating the Grand Irrationality is only going to intensify the strange atmosphere!

Here the past 4 months of the Grand Irrationality meets the next 4 months of the same, except we’re swapping a Mercury in Leo energy for a Mercury in Scorpio energy. From creativity to power, from heart strength to deeper magnetism, and from love into regeneration, welcome to the next 4 months!

We should get new insights into what opportunity, truths, and futures we awakened to in 2006, with an eye to what we need to release or let go of that’s become obsolete since last Summer. This is a time to tune into a higher and deeper experience of life itself, seeing the end of one quest as an opening to begin some new form of self-exhibition.

As Mars and Pluto rule Mercury and they are conjunct, there will be tremendous mind power available to those who accept a discipline. Here our ability to attune to the angels, devas, and all the invisible world, from nature spirits to Masters, attracts a higher awareness or vaster experience. This will be an extraordinarily favorable and productive time of attunement and alignment with the entire invisible world and the life forms helping humanity that can be contacted there. Set aside glamor, desire, ego attachments and push-pull power games, and this can be a time when we really become trained to manifest something deeper and higher than we have before now.

We’ve now had opportunities to reshape our desires and how we deal with loss or shared resources, and should have gotten new insights into what’s ended or needs to be eliminated in our lives so we can come to a freer, wiser, calm awareness. So now that we've done our rehearsals, reviews, revisions, and/or research on how we can coordinate the parts of this emerging process during the past 3 weeks, it's again time to get it on!!!

Here we face the future, and do what we must to weave elements of that future into our current life and affairs. We continue to eliminate attitudes and interpretations no longer appropriate to our emerging process, and can see the interconnectedness of life as we find our unique place to doing our Being in a vaster field of activity.

We now begin to ride the edge of extremely dynamic change, finding new forms of demonstrating the power of our magnetism related to whatever futures began for us in Spring 2006. Mercury direct will open many views and perspectives over the next 3 months, and the insights we receive and weaving we do in that period will lead us to a natural and powerful new set of views in March 2013. By December 2013 we will have crystallized the promise we’ve been living since March 2006.

In the past two Mercury retrogrades, we’ve gone through a process of learning how to look at the past with different eyes, seeing the storms and trials we’ve overcome as ways to rehearse how to deal with what is to come. Through retrospection, we have had opportunities to call up old powers in new ways that have helped us these past few months and will continue to help us in the next few months.

We're now on the threshold of being able to know without thinking, directly experiencing communication rather than having to go through a linear evaluation of hearing and interpreting words.
We can now gain higher awareness related to the old “skins of personality” we’ve shed (Scorpio is known for “shedding skins”), as well as old ghosts from the past. We can now focus using the natural enthusiasms and natural ways of self-expression arising since August to bring forth higher realizations. Keep opening to new desires, new ways of skillfully using power in responsible ways, new things to learn and new ways to interpret meaning.

So see how you’ve “gained through loss,” remember we’re entering a very weird time when a lot won’t make much sense, and remember the insights you’ve gained show you why certain things left over from the past must be eliminated after proper reflection. The Inferior conjunction at 26 Scorpio has been helping us to see how and when to adapt with skill and efficiency to our changing life conditions, and helped us find peace in moving on as needed, making every environment “home.”

On the whole this retrograde period has been innovative, awakening, liberating, productive, and emotionally stabilizing. Even though there may have been a lack of clarify or confusion in some ways, these could also have been resolved by communications and realizations. it’s also been great to bust old illusions, deceptions, and through seeing the larger phases and stages of unfolding events, and find new ways to see our role while renouncing our own and others’ perceptions that don’t honor our true part in the larger scheme of things.

Open up and be receptive to higher awareness, higher knowledge, and a greater faith in your ability to know in ways you’ve never known before. This begins a deeper experiential method of weaving things together, and a deeper dedication toward integrating personality within a deeper Soul response. Purify, eliminate, regenerate your mind and ability to focus without distractions getting in the way. Concentrate to integrate, let go and leap into a new life adventure that’s already prepared for you.

We’ve just been through a clarifying period where many things have been reviewed to see what’s over, what needs to be over, and what needs to be regenerated to bring forth the higher awareness we’re already receiving, whether we know it or not. Something has been stabilized, and we can now move forward on the basis of the insights we’ve gained these past several weeks.

Things will speed up considerably for the next three months, so go for a new focused power freed from old considerations and attachments. Continue to adapt with efficiency and a sense of freedom, and get ready for further sacrifices over the next few weeks that will focus and expand your spiritual effectiveness.

Clear out your mind of its old concepts to purify your understanding. Be thorough in doing your homework. Let go of all you no longer need while bringing forth higher knowledge and awareness, and by studying the nature of the subconscious or unconscious mind and how these work, you can come to some powerful depth realizations.

Strange and interesting karmic kickbacks are indicated in this cosmic Mercury direct moment. Expect a firm quickening, a need for self-sufficiency and self-reliance, and remember that humor often provides objectivity when it’s most needed. Enjoy the role you were born to play, keep attuning to your invisible helpers, and ride this incredibly productive energy through this period of “time out of time.”

And as usual, here are links to recent articles on what this November 2012 Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio is all about:

Comments

Speaking of how "stationary direct points set up major 'forks in the road of destiny' for all of us", I'd like to chime in and point out that Mercury's Superior Conjunction from a previous retrograde this year happened at the same degree that Jupiter will go Stationary Direct in January 2013.

As one who has Mercury ruling my Ascendant, natal Uranus at 21 Aries, and natal Sun at 28 Scorpio, I totally appreciate your Mercury station discussion. Thanks once again, Robert, for pointing the way between now and March...and beyond.

March 2006. Helpful. That one is marked with red ink. A long and winding road since. I'm better but still hesitant lest I fall into old traps again. Opportunities arise but I am cautious. March 2006 I dove right in. It was the right thing to do. It was very hard and very rewarding.

But now I hesitate because I have a choice for myself. It's as if the timing is off. Could be saturn squaring my natal uranus. I do need to move as physical survival depends upon it, but I will have to consider it exploratory and not be dependent on results. But that's jupiter? Sometimes risky, chancey? Safety girl is not always comfortable with that.

After commenting yesterday, the word 'agoraphobia' popped into my head. I fell into a heap. How could I live with that reality. It did spawn a deep spontaneous cry that surprised me. It's been awhile. Later while driving to errands I realized that reality was gone. It reminded me of the power of shining a light on it.

What I've really learned is not that people can be eeble but sometimes very complex. If someone is working their process I'm okay with trading readings. But when it comes to the hard cases I have to be realistic. There are folks with the skill sets and abilities to handle that without getting any on themselves. Some people and situations are beyond my pay scale in this life. I have limits that I need to honor. Whew!!!!